2024 has been a busy year of change.
In Employment law, we have seen the introduction of several pro-employee changes, including (among others):
- employees can now make flexible working requests from day one of their employment and make up to two such requests in any 12-month period;
- employees taking certain types of parental leave now have protection from redundancy for at least 18 months; and
- the new duty for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees.
So, what is the outlook for 2025 I hear you ask.
Labour’s proposed Employment Rights Bill
Over the last year we have heard a lot about Labour’s plans to re-shape employment law. We looked at the most significant of the intended changes included in Labour’s proposed Employment Rights Bill in our previous blog. None of the proposed changes are likely to become law until 2026. There are ongoing consultations and recently we have seen Labour table an Amendment Paper (most notably proposing to extend the time limit for bringing all Employment Tribunal claims from 3 to 6 months) as well as a lot of commentary on the scope of Labour’s plans such that we expect to hear a LOT about this in 2025.
Watch this space!
Summary of the expected changes in 2025
| When | Change |
| 20 January 2025 | The snappily named The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (Amendment of Schedule A) Order 2024 will come into force, meaning that, from 20 January 2025 the financial risk to an employer of failing to comply with collective consultation requirements in a redundancy situation will increase by up to 25%. Employers must collectively consult with staff in a redundancy situation if 20 or more employees are included in the process. |
| Early 2025 | The Supreme Court’s decision is expected in the case For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers on whether a person with a full gender recognition certificate which recognises that their gender is female should be considered a “woman” for the purposes of protection under the Equality Act 2010 (EqA). This decision is expected to have a significant impact on how services should in future cater for women, especially in relation to the provision of women only spaces. Linked to this, there may continue to be calls to amend the definition of “sex” under the EQA, to mean a person’s biological sex. |
| 31 January 2025 | The deadline to respond to the Women and Equalities Committee’s call for evidence in relation to paternity rights and shared parental leave. The Committee’s concern is that unequal division of childcaring responsibilities is a key reason for wider gender inequality and the gender pay gap. Recently, the campaign group The Dad Shift highlighted that shared parental leave is not an accessible benefit for lower income families. |
| 6 April 2025 | Prepare for the annual employment rates and limits changes, including the publicised rise in the employer’s rate for National Insurance Contributions to 15%. |
| Throughout 2025 | We expect to hear a lot about flexible working trends across the Country. From the four-day working week to Labour’s envisioned Right to Switch Off (see page 10), flexible working trends are all the rage and will continue to be so, although the more recent talk is of employers calling staff back to the office; we had the story of staff at Starling Bank resigning after being told to spend more time in the office. We also expect to see the further emergence of AI in the employment sphere. Employment appeals are also scheduled to be heard across 2025 in cases involving, among others, the subjects of employment status (e.g. Lutz v Ryanair DAC), whistleblowing (e.g. Wicked Vision Ltd v Rice) and discrimination (e.g. Ngole v Touchstone Leeds). |
One thing is for sure, we do not expect a dull moment in employment law in the coming year as the world of work continues to evolve at what can sometimes feel like warp speed! You can rest assured to keep up with these developments via our employment news feature.
This blog was written by Ben Lindsay, Solicitor at didlaw.
